


Underdog

by Teaotter



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Gen, Subversive Radio Host, The Voice of Night Vale, Unreliable Narrator, narrated by Cecil Palmer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 19:07:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1399147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teaotter/pseuds/Teaotter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone has been taking each of the posters and carefully re-labeling them to read: <strong>TAMIKA FLYNN FOR MAYOR</strong>.</p>
<p>(Spoilers through Episode 36)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Underdog

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thesleepingsatellite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesleepingsatellite/gifts).



Hello, listeners.

The Night Vale Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce the opening of a new, permanent local office for StrexCorp Synernists, Inc. They've taken over the old Customary Insurance Building across from the Post Office, all fourteen floors of office space and computer equipment and floor-to-ceiling windows of bullet-proof glass. They've already started some of the remodeling, and from the outside, at least, it looks like they're working very hard at making a home here.

Be sure to check them out on your way downtown, and welcome our new neighbors! 

And now, listeners, some important news about a sudden increase in street crime around Night Vale. It appears that the posters put up all over town – you know, the ones describing 13-year old Tamika Flynn, who (according to the posters at least) has been missing for several months now? – Well, it appears that these posters have been universally defaced. How terrible! Someone has been taking each of the posters and carefully re-labeling them to read: **TAMIKA FLYNN FOR MAYOR**.

Like all of you, I am shocked and appalled by this uncivilized behavior. Defacing StrexCorp property like that is definitely illegal, and not at all appropriate, regardless of whether you think Tamika Flynn would make a good mayor for Night Vale. Although, now that I think about it, it would be nice if she were a candidate, don't you think? I wonder what her platform would be...

Oh, sorry, my producer is glaring at me again. I'll go back to reading the announcement:

> Defacing these posters is wrong, and whoever is doing it should stop. Right now. Your efficiency is suffering. It is suffering such intense pain and terror, infinite horrors beyond mere imagination. You want to make the suffering stop, don't you? You can make the suffering stop. You – can make – it – STOP.

Right, yes. 

Anyone who knows where the perpetrators are hiding is urged to call the Sheriff's Secret Police immediately. _They'll know if you don't_.

***

Listeners! I just received an important press release in the form of a paper airplane thrown from inside the broadcast room's new chimney – and the Station's most sincere gratitude to premier citizen Marcus Vansten for such a cozy gift! It's just what this little desert town's community radio needed!

Anyway, the press release reads:

> We will not accept the easy answers. We will not accept the efficient answers. There is no efficiency in our hearts. Our hearts are filled with BLOOD.
> 
> Let blood flow in the streets. Let our hearts flow.
> 
> Your vote does not matter. Your voice does not matter. And yet: It is all that matters.
> 
> Find your voice. Cast your vote. KNOW YOURSELF.

Huh.

Well listeners, I can't be entirely sure – because the press release is unsigned – but I think that's young Tamika Flynn's official announcement that she's running for mayor! Could this year's mayoral race get any more exciting?!?

I mean, you all know that I've been quite a vocal supporter of Hiram McDaniels in his bid for mayor. But you should look out, Mr. McDaniels, because Tamika Flynn is just the kind of underdog that we here in Night Vale love to root for! I for one can't wait to see how this turns out!

***

Retiring Mayor Pamela Winchell called a press conference this afternoon to address the issue of Tamika Flynn's candidacy in this spring's hotly-contested mayoral race.

Mayor Winchell said, quote, “Whatever. She'll never be mayor, so. Fine. Go ahead and vote for her.”

One of the reporters in the room asked if Ms. Flynn is even eligible, considering her age and status as a missing person, as well as her continued non-attendance at her required junior high school classes.

Mayor Winchell informed reporters that “there is no age limit for mayors” and “class is something you're born with, but then, how would YOU know?” before spitting out a cloud of angry locusts. There were no follow-up questions.

More on this story as it develops.

***

Don't forget that the big Mayoral Debate has been scheduled for this Friday night at the Night Vale Elementary School's main gymnasium. 

There will be snacks and refreshments, and an opportunity to ask those burning questions you hold deep in your heart. Not that the candidates will be required to answer any questions that are actually on fire, but perhaps the fire marshal will be able to put them out for you. Since, of course, the fire marshal will actually be there, as attendance at the debate is mandatory.

There are rumors that recently-announced mayoral candidate Tamika Flynn will be making her first public appearance since last November, when she addressed a crowd outside the Night Vale Post Office. This is so exciting!

I have just been handed a piece of paper by my producer. It appears to be a statement from our new Station owners, StrexCorp. It reads:

> The Mayoral Debate is an essential step forward toward the future of Night Vale. It is a time for the fortunate citizens of our town to come together in peace, regardless of any petty differences of opinion, or the hard feelings of totally groundless grudges. Citizens should feel safe to express their personal choices without fear of repercussion or sudden detention.
> 
> The Debate is, and will always be, an undisrupted and completely politically neutral event. There will be no yellow helicopters hovering nearby ready to arrest anyone. We will all be perfectly safe.
> 
> Because we care about the future of Night Vale. StrexCorp.

Um.

Well, that sounds like an unequivocal promise of safe passage to the Debate. Which we all have to attend anyway, so I'm not quite sure why they bothered to issue that statement. But there you have it.

***

Good evening, listeners.

I'm broadcasting live this evening from the Night Vale Elementary School's main gymnasium, the scene of this year's wildly anticipated Mayoral Debate. Though I'm not sure how many of you are actually listening to this broadcast – ah, thank you. For those of you who might not have seen, or might not have the ability to see, Susan Escobar, the second grade scrying teacher, just waved her bluetooth headset at me. And now that I look more closely, I can see quite a few more glowing ominously in the crowd. Clearly, I have a few loyal listeners here tonight. At least, I assume they're all listening to me.

It's just so good to see the entire population of Night Vale coming together like this. Even the Hooded Figures have chosen to attend, which is why we are all desperately averting our gaze from the eastern-most portion of the gym bleachers.

There are four podiums set up under the eldritch seal of the school's mascot, one for each of the four mayoral candidates. Behind each of the podiums in a stone chair – and boy, those must have been hard to drag in here, they look heavy!

Hiram McDaniels is already here. He looks nervous – not that I can be sure what nerves look like in a dragon, but he's crushing the floorboards beneath his claws to powder, at any rate. 

I believe that the Faceless Old Woman is also here, although since I can't actually see her, I suppose she might not be.

Marcus Vansten, of course, is excused from the Debate, as he is from all such mandatory civic appearances. He has sent his gold-plated hat in his stead. It's currently hanging jauntily from the back of one of the stone chairs.

Tamika Flynn has not yet arrived. I'm beginning to be a bit concerned; I was very much hoping to hear her opinions on the new school curriculum. From the number of highly armored and armed visitors from StrexCorp surrounding the gymnasium floor, I clearly wasn't the only one looking forward to tonight's totally safe and undisrupted political event. I think I see the entire StrexCorp security team here tonight -

Oh. Hold on a moment, listeners. The Mayor is coming forward to open the ceremony with a brief chant and to lead us in a rendition of the official town song. 

We'll be right back.

***

Listeners, I have dismaying news from this evening's debate: _Tamika Flynn has not appeared_.

Hiram McDaniels got us off to a rousing start with a series of simultaneous, if conflicting speeches from his black and green heads. He did not take questions from the audience, but answered several pertinent ones that he asked himself.

The Faceless Old Woman answered questions that had been printed on three-by-five index cards and swallowed by birds. I can't say that I understood her responses entirely, but I believe she made some excellent points about the importance of positive self-image. Even if I still can't actually see her.

And, of course, there was the obligatory yet heart-felt round of applause for Mr. Marcus Vansten's gold-plated hat.

But listeners, Mayor Winchell just called Tamika Flynn's name, and there is no response. Oh! There, she has called Ms. Flynn's name a second time, and still there is no response.

I fear that Ms. Flynn may, in fact, be _missing_.

Mayor Winchell is –

Wait! What is that? I see – 

No! –

[GUNSHOTS]

***

Oh, listeners. Oh. It is hard for me to express the emotions I am feeling at this moment. This has been such an eventful evening! I'm sure we'll be talking about this night for years to come.

Listeners, Tamika Flynn did, in fact, appear tonight. Just as Mayor Pamela Winchell was calling her name for the third and final time, there was movement near the ceiling of the gymnasium.

Tamika Flynn rappelled down from the ceiling of the gymnasium on ropes as black and shadowless as the night sky. She was wearing blue jeans, a black Scorpions team sweatshirt, and threadbare canvas running shoes. She still wore the severed hand of the Head Librarian on a cord around her neck. Her eyes were still so dark, and so deep, and so very, very wise.

So striking were her eyes, and so unexpected was her entrance, that it took me a moment to realize that she was accompanied by several of the other so-called missing children, all in perfect defensive formation.

The StrexCorp visitors immediately began shooting – presumably as a salute to such an amazing girl, and not actually with the intent to commit harm (which would have gone against the spirit of their released statement). They were immediately answered by a burst of gunfire from several of the concerned citizens of Night Vale, presumable returning the salute in the appropriate fashion.

For a short while, the noise of gunshots was deafening. I'm not ashamed to say that I clapped my hands over my ears.

But then I saw that Ms. Flynn had reached her podium, and I drew my hands from my ears immediately and began to listen to her speech.

"I am not here to give you answers," Tamika Flynn shouted into the microphone. "Only more questions. What is the future of this town? What is the future of Night Vale?"

… at that point, the room went dark. I believe that the power went out in a freak incident entirely unrelated to the unfolding events of the debate, as Ms. Flynn's microphone also cut out at that point.

In the confusion, Ms. Flynn and the so-called missing children disappeared into the night.

When everyone had settled back down, there was, on one of the stone chairs, a copy of William Faulkner's _The Sound and the Fury_ , whose creased and broken spine split the book to a page marked with an underlined passage:

**And I will look down and see my murmuring bones and the deep water like wind, like a roof of wind, and after a long time they cannot distinguish even bones upon the lonely and inviolate sand.**

Oh, listeners.

I hope that tonight has given you much to think about in the coming weeks. I hope it has given you much to do. Or not to do, as the case may be. A single person, like a single vote, can change nothing. But a tide of them, a tide of voices and choices and actions can, if I may be so bold, _change the world_.

Or at least our own little corner of it.

***

In sadder news, the Sheriff's Secret Police report that fourteen people were injured and three killed during tonight's festivities. I and all of us here at Night Vale Community Radio extend our deepest condolences to the families of the fallen.

***

In an unrelated story, the local Night Vale offices of StrexCorp Synernists, Inc. burned to the ground last night in what arson investigators are calling a totally accidental fire, _no really, there are no signs of fire bombs, what are you even talking about?_ Because of the mandatory attendance at last night's Mayoral Debate, no firefighters were available to extinguish the blaze, which is still smoldering.

The site for a new temporary office has not yet been announced.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Underdog: story cover](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1908594) by [Teaotter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teaotter/pseuds/Teaotter)




End file.
